Making Vacations Business Firms Find Camera Rental Popular With Tourists And Natives

November 18, 1985|By Robin Foster of The Sentinel Staff

There are three new companies in the vicinity of International Drive that are making a full-time business of providing tourists the means for putting vacations on video.

Vacation Memories Inc., Video Camera Rentals and Rent-A-Cam opened their doors to Orlando's tourists in the past few months, and one company has found that even natives like the idea.

Pam Evans, president of Vacation Memories Inc., bought 10 VHS cameras, a van with the company's maroon and gray logo, ''Vacation Memories,'' custom- painted on the side and printed 25,000 advertising brochures with $15,000 of her own money and $15,000 of investors' money during the summer. The company officially opened for business Sept. 15.

Evans said she had planned to start renting cameras last June, but the cameras were back ordered and arrived later than she had expected. By the end of the year, Evans hopes to rent 30 video cameras to tourists and natives alike.

Vacation Memories takes care of birthday parties, weddings, honeymoons, grand openings, bar mitzvahs and, most importantly, vacations. ''The local business fills out the slow (tourist) season,'' Evans said, adding that the local business was a surprise.

Video Camera Rentals is the creation of a New York marketing partnership, said Alex Berger, a partner in the group. The company rents out 50 cameras at rates matching those of Vacation Memories, $49 daily and $200 weekly each. But Video Camera also does video production work, editing and cassette copying, Berger said.

Video Camera opened at the end of summer as a flagship store in a future franchising company. There is now a staff of five in Orlando, Berger said.

Berger said the video camera rental market is a new one, and for every 20 VCRs sold, only one camera is purchased. ''There are few cameras out there,'' he said. So renting a camera is an attractive option because cameras are costly, between $500 and $1,500, he said. What companies such as Video Camera are selling is do-it-yourself films, rather than pre-recorded movies, he explained.

Rent-A-Cam, which opened three weeks ago, is the newest entry into the market. Roger Thomas, an Englishman who has two similar stores operating in Great Britain, rents his 27 cameras for $45 apiece the first day and $19 for each additional day. Rent-A-Cam also will copy cassettes. Thomas said he may franchise the store concept in the future, but added he plans to spend the next year concentrating on the Orlando area. Thomas thought of Orlando 18 months ago when he was visiting a local attraction with his Beta camera, and fellow tourists begged him for information on the equipment.

All three companies find their business through hotels, most of those in the Disney area. The hotels get a commission, usually 10 percent, for displaying company brochures and forwarding customers to the video rental companies. Often the companies have contracts with the hotels.

Evans has set her system up with hotels this way: ''They do the advance registration of rentals and call me. I bring the equipment over after I do the paperwork,'' Evans said.

''I'm spread in 18 different directions. I answer the phones, do the paperwork and make the deliveries. Tourists don't have set hours. My best calls sometimes come at 10 at night.'' Evans said she plans to hire a full- time staffer when the Christmas season arrives.

Thomas' Rent-A-Cam also has contracts with hotels, offering a 10 percent commission, but he adds a 2.5 percent comission for every 20 orders turned in for video rentals.

Berger said Video Camera does not necessarily set up contracts with hotels, but when a commisssion is involved it's usually 10 percent.

All three companies rent out VHS cameras, but Video Camera and Rent-A-Cam also rent Betas and foreign models. Evans said she has ordered some Beta models, and eventually 10 percent of her inventory will be Beta cameras.